You know that feeling: you're lying in bed at night, tired, ready to fall asleep – and then it shows up. That one number. Your account balance. The tax return you still haven't filed. That sense of not quite having a grip on something, without being able to say exactly what.
I hear this from so many women in my conversations at fin:marie that I could probably write it down in my sleep by now. And I think we massively underestimate what money worries actually do to our heads.
We think it's about the money. It's only half about the money, if you ask me – the other half is what happens inside us while we try not to think about it.
So, let's get into it. Why does this weigh on us so much, and what actually helps – without you having to overhaul your entire financial life in one weekend. ☕
Why do money worries hit our mental health so hard?
Short answer: because our brain treats financial uncertainty like a real threat, even when nothing acute is actually happening.
A recent Erste Group study for International Women's Day 2026 shows this pretty clearly: 90% of women say money worries increase their psychological strain. For men it's 87%, so also high – but it hits us a bit harder still. And honestly, that matches exactly what I keep hearing in conversations.
The nasty part is usually not the one big crisis, but the constant background noise:
Fixed costs you don't quite have in your head, the bill still sitting unopened on the pile, that "I really should make a plan" that never quite gets its turn.
Our nervous system doesn't distinguish much between "I'm being chased right now" and "I don't actually know how much I have left this month" – both feel like a loss of control, and loss of control is one of the biggest stress triggers we know.
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And then there's another effect on top, one that Erste Bank CEO Gerda Holzinger-Burgstaller described pretty well recently: a kind of vicious cycle. The later you start taking care of your money, the less time you have to build wealth.
The less time you have, the less you end up investing. And the less you invest, the less wealth you'll have in old age. The annoying part: this cycle keeps ticking in the background whether we look at it or not – and that's exactly what makes it so mentally heavy, this sense of racing against a clock you can't see.
What actually helps as a first step?
Short answer: don't try to fix everything at once, just take one small step.
I know that sounds almost too simple to really help. But that's exactly the thinking trap I see in so many of my clients: they believe "taking care of your money" means tackling a brokerage account, a budget plan, retirement provision and your tax situation all in one weekend – and because that looks like a massive mountain, the mountain just never gets touched.
Truth is, one single point is enough to start with. Open a brokerage account, even without knowing exactly what you'll buy yet.
Or just write down your fixed costs for one month, roughly, no Excel masterpiece required. That's exactly the first step in our fin:marie formula: get organised first, then comes peace of mind, and only after that is there room for the bigger dreams. You can't skip step two and three, as much as you'd sometimes like to.
And here's the interesting part: that one small step almost always feels more relieving than you'd expect beforehand. Not because it solves everything – but because the background noise in your head gets quieter the moment you actually know where you stand.
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What we keep in mind for your money? Our nervous system isn’t our boss 🙂 and…
✗ 90% of women say money worries increase their psychological strain – that's not a small thing, that's a real burden on your headspace.
✗ It's rarely the big crisis that wears us down, it's the constant background noise of unopened bills and postponed plans.
✗ 78% of us would rather trust a real person than an AI recommendation on money matters – and that's a good, healthy sign, not a step backwards.
✗ The first step doesn't have to solve everything. It just has to happen – getting organised comes before peace of mind, and that's okay.
Sources:
- Pressemitteilung der Erste Group zur Studie zum Weltfrauentag 2026 vom 24. Februar 2026: erstegroup.com – Weltfrauentag 2026
My head is clear, yesss: What now?
If you're noticing that your own background noise has gotten louder too – come by for a 30-minute Espresso Coaching session. Free, no sales pressure, just you, me and your questions. → (LINK)
